Siren 11: AFLW All Australian team, staying connected with community clubs, women in sport long reads & more
A Women in Sport Collective
Australia will host the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup and friends, it’s a welcome bit of news that had us smiling this week.
Let’s keep smiling! In last week’s newsletter, we told you we would do our best to make this newsletter a place that would make you smile. We’ve been working hard to make that happen. And we’re so excited to share with you the Siren Rewatch Schedule. It’s a fancy name for what is a schedule of women’s sport matches and games and movies and documentaries about women’s sport or women in sport that we can rewatch together and chat about on social media. Think the 2019 AFLW Grand Final (one year ago today!) or that classic film: A League of Their Own. (They are both already on the schedule of course!)
Next week we’ll begin releasing that schedule and we hope you’ll join us for the great Siren Rewatch over the coming weeks but in the meantime, if you have any suggestions for an iconic game or match that we can source online, a great movie or a super interesting documentary that we should add to the schedule, send them our way! You can contact us by replying to this email, or get in touch on Twitter or Instagram.
We’re working on more good and fun things to share with you as we all grapple with these ever-changing times so stay tuned and stay safe.
In this issue
We begin our recap of the tumultuous AFLW season with Gemma Bastiani’s look at the seven Conference A teams in a little more depth, and her All Australian team. Over at Play On Radio, Gemma also looked into the statistical leaders of the 2020 season. Alison Smirnoff shares some suggestions of how to stay connected to your community club in these trying times, and Kasey Symons has put together a reading list—number of long reads about or by women in sport. And there’s no better time to sit down and read a whole lot about women in sport!
AFLW Season Wrap: Conference A
By Gemma Bastiani
Kate Surman slips a Jasmine Grierson tackle. Image: Megan Brewer
With the AFLW 2020 season coming to an untimely end, it’s time to cast an eye over each team’s performance—looking at what they did well, what didn’t quite work and what each team’s focus should be heading towards 2021. This week it’s all about Conference A. Be sure to check in on next week’s Siren newsletter for Conference B’s team by team season wrap.
Maintaining connectedness at your community club
By Alison Smirnoff
Image: Darebin Falcons
From her perspective inside the Darebin Falcons, Alison Smirnoff has shared some ideas of what the club has implemented during lockdown to keep their members connected and engaged in their sporting community.
Siren’s 2020 AFLW All Australian Team: too many midfielders?
By Gemma Bastiani
Karen Paxman kicks for goal against the Dogs. Image: Megan Brewer
Picking an AFLW All Australian team is never an easy task. Finding a balanced team, with considerations toward those registering high stats, the big improvers of the year and players able to influence games the most can mean having a starting squad of 50 players before whittling it down. So, with no further ado, here is Siren’s 2020 AFLW All Australian team.
Women in Sports Writing to the Front
By Kasey Symons
In lieu of live sport, Kasey Symons has rounded up some quality sports writing to hopefully keep you entertained, engaged and connected to the women in sport community in this really hard time.
Looking back at 2020 by the Numbers
By Gemma Bastiani for Play On Radio
Before the 2020 AFLW season began Play On Radio looked at the competition’s statistical leaders. With the season over, they’ve gone back to highlight those who dominated the numbers this year.
In some excellent women in sport news for us in Australia,Basketball Australia and the New South Wales government won the competitive bid to host the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022! We cannot wait!
Congratulations to our friend Nicole Hayes on the upcoming release of her new footy book, Little Legends with co-author Adrian Beck—look out for it in April!
(We’re also a bit excited to also see our friend Rana Hussain have a character in it too!)
Georgina Hibberd has been in the inner sanctum of the GWS Giants this AFLW season to write a book on the team’s journey. Here’s a look at her experiences so far and the impact the coronavirus has had on bringing the season to a halt.
There was also this beautiful piece on Richmond’s Akec Makur Chuot By Duska Sulicich.
Suzy Wrack speaks to Kely Nascimento-DeLuca about her documentary on women’s football, racism in Brazil and the fight for equality.
Our thoughts are with NBA analyst and trailblazer for women in sports broadcasting Doris Burke as she recovers from COVID-19. Hear her talk about her experiences dealing with the illness and her message for others on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast.
Lindsay Gibbs interviews athletes about how their sports and their lives are being impacted by COVID-19 in the latest edition of her newsletter Power Plays.
Julia Smith writes on the impact of the coronavirus for women’s sports and how gendered inequalities may be further intensified. Kathryn Henne and Madeleine Pape also write on the role of policy makers in helping to achieve gender equality in sport.
And we’re wishing a very happy one-year anniversary to Megan and Jess Schutt!
Megan’s tweets about Jess are bringing smiles to our faces during this time.
For a bit of a throwback, check out this great piece on Schutt by Brittany Carter.
If you’re not following Lydia Williams and Stephanie Catley on TikTok. Do it right now. Like now. Stop reading this newsletter, download TikTok and follow them now. Or you can just trust us to provide you with their top-notch content ;) This Kath and Kim clip had us in stitches!
Runner up
And again it’s Lydia Williams and Stephanie Catley!
Y’all are keeping us entertained and full of joy in isolation. We love you and we want more!
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